Drone from China: GeekBuying.com

Some experiences from international trade: in late June, I ordered a “drone” – a remote controlled quadcopter – from Chinese seller GeekBying.com. The drone in question was MJX Bugs 2 model, with GPS, 1080P camera, altitude hold, and other nice features, and GeekBying was advertising the best price.

GeekBying changed the delivery company from TNT that I had asked to DHL, but I finally got the drone, at 10th July. It appeared to be a fine little device and worked fine – for two minutes. Then it run out of battery, and a key problem emerged: the battery did not charge with the provided charger. The drone remained dead.

I contacted GeekBuying and their “After Sales Service”, and they responded by asking photo or video evidence of the problem. I made a video where I showed how connecting the charger to the battery does nothing. There was a wait (of ten days) after which they said that they had “contacted the manufacturer” and that are convinced that this is a battery problem. However, a battery is small and “easy to lose during the way” so they wanted me to make another order, where the replacement battery could be combined. This sounded a bit odd. I said that thank you, but I am not interested to order something else at the moment, but I would appreciate if they could just send me the replacement battery.

Another long wait. Finally, in 11th August, I got another small package from China, with the replacement battery Geekbuying had sent me. There is a photo below, showing the original Bugs 2 battery, and the “replacement”.

Batteries: original Bugs 2 battery, and the GeekBuying.com’s “replacement part”. Make a guess, which is which?

I mailed the GeekBuying After Sales Service again, explaining that the replacement battery was a completely wrong one, and that they had made a mistake. I did send them photos of both batteries, side by side, and explained that the replacement battery was of wrong capacity (750 mAh vs. 1800 mAh of the original), and that it was also of wrong shape, as the original Bugs 2 battery is specially designed to lock into the battery compartment of the drone. The whole deal was starting to smell fishy, and I asked for instructions to return the drone, and get a refund.

GeekBuying responded by email “We are sorry for that the battery is not original, as there is no original battery in manufacturer. We confirmed it and the battery can work on this drone as well, pls try it first.”

I checked their website, and they actually were themselves advertising the original, 1800 mAh capacity Bugs 2 battery to be sold as a spare part (link here). In my response, I explained this, and said that I am not willing to “try” using a drone with a battery that is not designed for it: even while with a right voltage and connector, the drone might operate for a couple of minutes, this small battery does not lock into the Bugs 2 battery compartment. It would be dangerous to fly a drone with it, as the battery might just disconnect, and the drone could drop on something – or someone. I also considered it fraudulent practice to mail me a wrong battery, and claim that the manufacturer has no suitable battery, as they themselves openly advertise and sell the correct, original battery.

At this point I escalated the issue in PayPal.com into a claim. I had used PayPal in online shopping, because they advertise certain level of buyer protection.

Even after this, the only responses I got from GeekBuying.com were emails asking me to use the wrong, small battery, and send them some videos showing how it is operating. Even a single look at the photo (above) would be enough to point out that this makes no sense.

I thought that most obvious rotten practices would had been rooted out from online shopping – at least with big online stores, but this experience at least suggest otherwise. GeekBuying as a seller has been trying me to make further orders, so that it would make better financial sense for them to post the replacement battery to the faulty product they had sold and shipped. And, as I refused to make further orders, they deliberately posted a wrongly designed, smaller battery as a replacement – something that might even put the persons using the wrong battery while flying a drone into physical danger.

It will be interesting to see if I will get any refund from the drone, in the end. There is the added complication that products with lithium ion batteries can usually be shipped from China, as they come in cargo planes. But – as the kind lady in local post office today explained to me – an individual might have trouble shipping them back, due to the tighter safety regulations of regular airmail. I tried disabling the batteries (using sticky tape) and got the drone and both batteries submitted as a post package back into seller in China, but if the delivery company refuses to carry them, then I will not get a “confirm receipt of the merchandise” from GeekBuying, and it is unclear if PayPal will cover me, in that case. Also, even while PayPal advertises “Refunded Returns”, with free shipping worldwide, the actual claim notice I got from them says that I am personally responsible for all shipping costs.

At this point: the “cheap price” I got from GeekBuying.com has grown quite a bit:

drone price: 106,81 euros

shipping (from China): 22,43 euros

Finnish customs & DHL service fee: 31.04 euros

return shipping fee: 43,00 euros

total = 203,28 euros.

And: all the used time, energy and peace of mind for all of this? Priceless?

Edit: finally in October, after initially failing to verify that I had indeed returned the drone to the seller, PayPal in the end (after me resubmitting the claim with photographic evidence) concluded that yes, there was indeed faulty product and wrong replacement battery, and that I had returned it to the seller, and they returned me the drone price. I had lost all the other costs, and all time and energy required.